


The Fall of Gatsby

by FallingInToThePages



Category: Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1974), The Great Gatsby (2013)
Genre: Character Analysis, Character Study, F/M, Free Verse, Poetry, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21714604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallingInToThePages/pseuds/FallingInToThePages
Summary: A small series of free-verse poems based around Gatsby's perspective throughout the novel. Expect many references to destiny, fate, stars, and Greek mythology. :)--[Excerpt]--My riches, my sacrifices, my dreamsAll for naught in this race to Death.This love affair with Fate and Destiny,Birthed to the wrong family,The grandest failure of the century:The Great Gatsby.
Relationships: Daisy Buchanan/Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan/Tom Buchanan
Kudos: 2





	1. Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written anything on this account for quite a while, so I thought I'd share some poetry that I wrote for an assignment. Hopefully I'll be able to update my stories and share more of my work. I hope you all enjoy :)

The stars beckon me.  
They sparkle through the hole in the roof above my head,  
watching as raindrops fall on my cheeks,  
The depth of the universe sits on my chest.  
My mother and father grow more gaunt everyday,  
They've become living skeletons,  
rattling and moaning throughout the day.  
They seem to wish that Thanatos  
would grace them like a butterfly,  
Settling on their tanned arms and carrying them off,  
Away from the dusty fields and to Elysium.  
They drift through this world, unguided.  
I feel the pull of the stars.  
The Furud, the Cetus,  
Hercules, and the beautiful Cygnus.  
I feel the adventure within me,  
Clawing through my organs,  
Wishing for something better than this,  
This mortal existence. 

My collar chafes against my neck,  
The barrel of the gun heavy against my hands.  
Where a tool of life and growth used to sit,  
Now rests a machine of death.  
However, with death comes life.  
A beautiful, wealthy heiress  
Rests her gloved hand along my shoulder.  
Her light, glowing blue eyes stars into my own brown  
Pulling me in like the reflective water of a pond.  
The world within it bright and clear,  
The image of me pressed against her side a promise.  
Her perfume pulls me in,  
The diamonds around her gleam.  
She’s sparkling Virgo, and I the stumbling Taurus.  
While her divine, glowing skin draws me in,  
The call of war drags me away from her. 

The war haunts me to this day.  
The smell of carnage and gunpowder,  
The sounds of tanks,  
The phantom feeling of a gas mask.  
After the war, I find myself drifting.  
Drifting along the coasts on this boat,  
working pointless jobs.  
Along the shores lay simple pleasures that barely glimmer.  
The letters of my Virgo have long since stopped,  
She disappeared from Louisville,  
Married, I’m told.  
Some beast of a man,  
Tom Buchanan.  
He has wealth and class,  
Meager little things when rooted in a being as despicable as him.  
Work lines my calloused hands and worn face,  
It runs along my aching back and through limbs from a long day  
My journey has just begun.  
My ambition pulls me,  
Wants me to do anything for that glamorous life.  
The life of Jay Gatsby.


	2. Middle

The light pulls me.  
That green, lush light across the Sound  
Nothing within my estate steps out of line,  
The manicured lawn, the lavish gardens, the grand halls.  
Bountiful with my wealth and golden in the sun.  
Yet, it hasn’t attracted her.  
She continues to evade my invitations,  
My messengers flock around her like doves.  
Yet she waves them off like Artemis.  
The great virgin huntress and I her Orion.  
How can she resist?  
Resist the glimmer, the shine,  
The champagne, and the wine.  
Oh, how I have made myself into a golden husk.  
Years of gangs, years of work,  
It was all for her. 

A new neighbor joins me.  
Of course I know his relations,  
A few strings pulled,  
and he unknowingly falls into my grasp.  
Settling into the groundskeepers cottage,  
His tweed jacket prim, and his hair proper.  
He resembles Daisy slightly,  
The high cheekbones, the dainty nose.  
Cousins, indeed.  
He comes willingly to my parties,  
Sticks out like a sore thumb until he drinks.  
Upon our meeting, his eyes sparkled,  
Interested, something unknown, then closed-off.  
He fascinates me, piques my interest like an adventurer  
Exploring the dense jungles of South America.  
I must keep myself distant from him and not get carried away,  
he is a simple pawn within my game and nothing more. 

I have become close with Carraway.  
Told him of my life as Gatz,  
It’s strange how one, so bruised as I,  
So tarnished and burned  
Can find it within myself to trust once again.  
He has allowed me to reach my Virgo,  
She sleeps besides me most nights.  
Her light blonde hair fans around my pillow,  
Her eyes glitter with adoration,  
Adoration with my life.  
How I wish this could become more,  
Although, once I had begged her to leave her old life behind,  
She became distant.  
Her blue eyes calculating,  
Her hands hesitant on my chest.  
Her brow furrowed more often than not,  
Her nights with me becoming shorter and shorter.  
The reasons behind this are obvious,  
She’s scared to stay with me.  
She acts similar to a stray dog,  
Debating with itself to leave the comfort of routine,  
To live with someone they don’t know.  
I guess I have changed,  
But it was all for her.


	3. End

I had to do it.  
Take the blame, take the fall  
Who's to know Fate would lead me here?  
Blood dripping through my body,  
Fast and fleeting  
Brownish burgundy  
bleeding into the sparkling waves  
lapping over my head.  
The blood disperses like dirt,  
Falling to the bottom of the pool.  
Forgotten  
Until having to be cleaned up,  
Unwilling hands, scrubbing the tainted tiles.  
I’m sure if Daisy was the one to die  
Her blood would be white.  
Pure and heavenly,  
Shattered grace falling from Heaven.  
The skies would mourn,  
Rain ever falling over our heads,  
And God himself would smite the bastard.

I was so close.  
That green light was within my reach,  
I am cursed, it seems.  
Like Tantalus,  
Forever starving and reaching.  
I may beg and sacrifice everything,  
yet my pleas falls on deaf ears  
that had long since been turned against me.  
That damn man and all his abuses!  
His musculature and gross demeanor,  
Akin to the Thunderer and Ruler of Olympus.  
How he rapes Daisy of her dreams,  
Of her joy, of her love.  
She could arise above him so easily,  
Yet she remains like Echo to Narcissus.  
A meek nymph,  
Ignored and rejected.  
If only she was like Patient Penelope,  
Awaiting me when I was Odysseus.

When I was journeying to my true spot in history,  
Arising from the dirt and filth of poverty,  
To prove myself to my queen.  
To once more lay with her at the end of my perilous journey.  
However, my riches, my sacrifices, my dreams  
All for naught in this race to Death.  
This love affair with Fate and Destiny,  
Birthed to the wrong family,  
The grandest failure of the century:  
The Great Gatsby.


End file.
